All of a sudden, the bodyguard stopped us, claiming that something didn't seem right, and ordered us to follow him into a sharp detour that led to four menacing thugs. The bodyguard pulled out his sidearm and shots were fired at the thugs until they went down. We then spoke with him and, thanks to our character's above-average intelligence score, were able to point out that he gunned down four thugs with only three shots. The bodyguard dodged the question and we decided to drop the issue rather than risk blowing our cover, and followed him the rest of the way. At this point, our quest journal updated itself, directing us to report back to The King with our findings. After a quick run back to that area, which involved sitting through another loading screen transition, we reported that the shyster was running a scam with phony assailants and were rewarded with a wad of cash and a new quest--to find out why a band of travelers were assaulted at Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort Historic Park the other night.

I decided to interact with the nearby jukebox to see what was available (even though the interaction text was outlined in red), and in doing so scared the girl and turned all of the Kings against me. That wasn't supposed to happen; but it did, and in doing so I was able to try out the game's shooting mechanics, which have improved considerably. The best way to describe it is that it seems like the weapons have more weight, which made the whole experience feel much more like an honest first-person shooter. VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) however remained the same: cycling through body parts followed up with a slow motion cinematic kill. Again, going for the limbs is still the most sure-fire way to quickly eliminate an enemy. Eventually I escaped after killing a number of the gang members, decreasing my overall reputation in the city.

I killed most of the members I could find of each of these factions, save for the Kings. They were a bit too powerful for my meager firepower. At first, I was just killing for the fun of it. Obsidian stacked my character with ammunition and weapons (though my stats were too low level to use most of them effectively). Boxing gloves were my personal favorite tool of slaughter, backed in a close second by the machete. Running around in a pinstripe suit with a cowboy hat and boxing gloves is just plain funny.